September 3rd, 2026: U.S. Launches “Tanker for Tanker” Strikes Against Iran

**Mike Baker** (0:12)
It's Thursday, the 3rd of September. Welcome to The President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, the Trump administration puts a new punitive tanker for tanker policy in place in the Strait of Hormuz, telling the Iranian regime, every time you attack a vessel in the Strait, the US will target a regime oil tanker. And they've already put the new policy into action. I'll have the details. Later in the show, two suspected sabotage attempts strike Germany's electricity grid within 24 hours, putting authorities on alert for a coordinated attack against critical infrastructure. Plus, Ukraine puts international airlines on notice, warning that its expanding drone campaign is making Russian airspace unsafe. And in today's Back of the Brief, American authorities penetrate Hamas' cryptocurrency network, seizing its money, fundraising websites, and information about thousands of donors. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
Yesterday, we told you that two supertankers carrying Saudi Arabian oil had been attacked while leaving the Strait of Hormuz. Well, that attack turned out to be deadlier and more consequential than initially reported. Saudi Arabia now says Iran was responsible, and two Filipino sailors aboard the Saudi-owned tanker Asidr were killed. The Asidr was carrying approximately 2 million barrels of crude oil when it was struck by an unidentified projectile near the coast of Oman late on Monday. Another supertanker carrying roughly the same amount of Saudi oil was hit only minutes later. Initial reports indicated that the crews aboard both vessels were safe. The Asidr's operator, though, has now confirmed those two deaths, while the Saudi government has publicly assigned responsibility to Tehran.
In response, during Tuesday's major operation against approximately 100 targets inside Iran, American forces also attacked two Iranian government tankers. According to US officials who spoke with Axios, the tankers were anchored off of Iran's coast, north of the American naval blockade line. American drones reportedly fired missiles into their engine rooms. We do not yet have complete damage assessments, and there's been no confirmed information about casualties aboard either vessel. But the target selection is obviously significant. Previous American operations against Iranian tankers were intended to prevent vessels from violating the US blockade. These attacks were, of course, different. Officials say they marked the first use of a new policy, approved by President Trump, that they're calling, quote, tanker for tanker. The concept is relatively straightforward. If Iran attacks a commercial tanker moving through the Strait of Hormuz, the US will retaliate by attacking one of Iran's own tankers. Washington is no longer limiting its response to intercepting weapons, escorting commercial ships, blockading ports, or destroying the launchers and radar systems and maritime facilities that Iran uses to threaten the waterway. It's now placing Iran's own oil fleet in the crosshairs. And that matters because, of course, oil remains one of Tehran's most important sources of hard currency. Iran needs tankers to move that crude. Well, there is a statement of the obvious, and replacing a disabled supertanker is considerably more difficult than replacing a missile launcher or an attack drone. The policy also gives the US a response that is proportional, clearly understood, and focused on the same economic pressure point that Iran is targeting. American officials believe Tuesday's broader strikes also damaged enough of Iran's radar, missile and drone infrastructure to reduce the threat to commercial shipping for at least a month.
But Iran, the regime, is showing no indication that it intends to abandon its effort to control shipping through the waterway.
Tehran has added another 11 vessels to its blacklist of ships accused of violating Iranian navigation rules, bringing the total on its blacklist to 56
Now that list includes crude oil tankers, natural gas carriers and vessels transporting refined petroleum products.
Iran says blacklisted ships could be fined, detained or have their cargoes confiscated if they attempt to pass through Hormuz.
The Iranian regime is also threatening to blacklist vessels that cooperate with them through ship-to-ship transfers.
Oil companies and refiners are already avoiding some of the affected vessels, demonstrating that the regime can disrupt shipping without firing missiles or launching drones. And despite President Trump's insistence that the US controls the strait, well, visible traffic remains extremely limited. Preliminary ship-tracking data recorded only four commodity vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, down from 10 the previous day, and well below the recent daily average. Now, some ships may have crossed with their location transponders turned off, so those figures likely don't capture everything that's moving through the waterway. But they do show that commercial operators are still treating the Strait of Hormuz as an active conflict zone. And that brings us back to the tanker for tanker policy. The Trump administration is betting that Iran will reconsider attacking foreign shipping once its own oil fleet becomes a target. For the Iranian regime, every disabled tanker, of course, means less crude reaching foreign buyers and less money flowing into an economy already being squeezed by sanctions and the American blockade. For Washington, the policy offers a way to punish Iran at sea, without automatically committing the US to another prolonged bombing campaign.